UNLV wants to move up football opener

Nevada-Las Vegas has asked to move its season-opening game with Minnesota ahead by two days, a UNLV spokesman said Wednesday, and is waiting for an answer from the Gophers.
The game in Sam Boyd Stadium, the first ever between the Rebels and Gophers, is currently scheduled for Sept. 1, the first Saturday of the 2012 college football season. But that's the start of Labor Day weekend, UNLV director of media relations Mark Wallington said, and the school would prefer to avoid the busy weekend for its fans.
UNLV's athletic department has asked the Gophers for permission to play the game on Thursday, Aug. 30 instead, Wallington said, "and we're waiting to hear back from Minnesota." Moving the game could save Gopher fans some money, too, he pointed out, because Las Vegas fills up during long holiday weekends. Air fares and hotel rates will be considerably lower for a weekday game.
The Rebels have explored television possibilities for a Thursday game -- non-conference games are the property of the home team -- but Wallington said their desire to move the game is not contingent of finding a carrier for the game.
If the game is moved, it would mark the second time in three seasons, and fifth time in a dozen years, that the Gophers have kicked off their season on a Thursday.

Joe Christensen covered Major League Baseball for 15 years, including three seasons at the Baltimore Sun and eight at the Star Tribune, before switching to the college football beat. He’s a Faribault, Minn., native who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1996. He covered Jim Wacker’s Gophers for the Minnesota Daily and also wrote about USC, UCLA and the Rose Bowl for the Riverside Press-Enterprise before getting this chance to cover football again.